What’s a tone of voice document?
When you begin the branding process with Birdy we start work on your tone of voice document right away. Why? Because it's one of the most important pieces of branding work you can commission.
What’s it for?
A tone of voice document is a company's guide to all its written copy, including online, social media, e-mails, printed content, press releases and newsletters. A tone of voice document builds a company's brand and reflects the ethos of the company, speaking to both existing and potential customers. It helps build a company's brand and reflect their personality.
How should it be used?
It’s a guide for all staff and any third parties you work with to use in all communications. Birdy make a printable, readable and accessible document to be referred to whenever creating copy in-house (cause no-one wants to pick up a dry and dull doc). A tone of voice isn't a bible, it changes as your company develops, launches campaigns and changes focus too and should be added to by comms staff. Each tone of voice document is unique and its length and content dependent on the size and focus of the company. Larger companies will require a more formal and extended document while smaller companies can keep it shorter and focus, instead, on phrases that you love. Every document is the result of discussion between agency and client.
What’s in it?
Each TOV document that Birdy delivers contains these elements:
1. Brand essence This is summed up in a brand paragraph that tells customers why a company exists, its USP, target audience and emotions you want to evoke. Often this is similar to the introductory paragraph on your homepage – like a company's shop window. It shows you know exactly who you are, what you're about and what you do. It should be confident and compelling.
2. Tone in a nutshell These are the big-hitting headlines that summarise how you should be representing your brand. This is your ethos, do's and don'ts, attitudes and aims that we highlight before going into depth further in the document.
3. Word bank These are all the words and phrases that we love in relation to your company and are all-important. For example, what is your profession? There's a world of difference between calling yourself a fine artist and a painter, for instance. What are your company's pronouns? Is jargon acceptable? What are the phrases that are unique to you that you should reach for when talking about your company? For example "We understand the power of light" or " We design and make furniture to fit your home'. Birdy also list words we don't love – these will only convince potential customers that you're not for them. The right words reflect your company and show confidence and experience. Birdy can also write your strapline, if needed.
4. Brand hierarchy Every company has a number of factors, skills, aims and core values that make up their unique brand personality. It's always a fascinating process to run through these with clients, often they mention an aspect that hadn't been obvious before such as your products are all made in the UK which is worth mentioning here. We agree these factors and assign them percentages to show importance. Once the brand hierarchy is agreed, the company staff should weave these factors through all messaging to ensure it's consistent and correct.
Want to see what a tone of voice document looks like and how it can change what you do? Just drop us an email at info@birdyagency.co.uk
